I am relatively new to Joomla and not a seasoned coder - I am trying to install JMS and had a ton of errors. I got it whittled down to:


* Unable to write entry
* Error during installation of the file "administrator/includes/defines.php"


As near as I can tell the following files are not in joomla:
includes/defines_multisites.php
includes/multisites.php

also getting file not found error up patch for the following:
installation/includes/defines.php
installation/installer/helper.php
installation/installer/jajax.php

Now I am just plain stuck. Permissions of all other folders were changed.

Thanks!~

The "Unable to write entry" error message appear when you have a problem of permission to create or update files and folder on your system as explained in FAQ trouble shooting
/faq#sec-14
Sometime, you can solve this kind of problem when using the FTP Layer present in Joomla / Global configuratoin.
With the FTP Layer, this may increase the permission when the user and password you use for the FTP connection has the permission on the files.

See also my other reply to this question in the form
/forum?func=view&id=67&catid=7#67

OK i was able to get my error messages down to
JFTP::store: Bad response
and in blue
Backup failed

I made all the changes suggested - but am not able to find what permissions I need to edit on this issue? Any help?

Thanks!

If you have setup correctly the FTP layer, the question is do you have try to install the patches with JMS installed or have you installed JMS after having setup the FTP Layer.

The problem is perhaps that you have installed JMS before having change the FTP Layer.
If you un-install JMS, recheck the FTP Layer parameter in Global Configuratoin and after re-install JMS.
This should give JMS the permission of the FTP user.
If this is the same owner and group than the one used to intall Joomla, this should solve the installation of JMS as the permission will be the same.